The $70,000-a-Year Minimum Wage

[Independent voter]

SEATTLE — Staff members gasped four years ago when Dan Price gathered the 120 employees at Gravity Payments, the company he had founded with his brother, and told them he was raising everyone’s salary to a minimum of $70,000, partly by slashing his own $1.1 million pay to the same level.

The news went viral and provoked a national debate about whether efficient capitalism could have a heart. Some Americans lauded Price for treating employees with dignity. However, on Fox Business he was labeled the “lunatic of all lunatics,” and Rush Limbaugh declared, “I hope this company is a case study in M.B.A. programs on how socialism does not work, because it’s going to fail.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/30/o...imum-wage.html

This is an update on the company Gravity Payments a company where every employee makes at least $70k. The company is doing very well. In the first days, a couple key employees quit because they didn't like getting the same pay as noobs.

The company benefited from all the free publicity the move got them, being the first company to pay everyone $70k. That won't happen with the second company that does this.

Seattle being a left wing place, a lot of their new hires and customers want to work with a company that has Gravity Payments values so that helps too.

I think it's mostly a gimmick, it won't work everywhere, just places where there are a lot of left wing people. It's an interesting experiment if anything.

[gioderpington]

You drastically under estimate how much corporate heads take home. Note that the dude cut his own pay to 70k from 1.1 million. Imagine if Jeff Bezos cut his billions to millions. Amazon could probably keep up with that easily. McDonald's could probably easily do 45k a year. Definitely wouldn't work for every business, but there are plenty that could.

[NED funded]

You drastically under estimate how much corporate heads take home. Note that the dude cut his own pay to 70k from 1.1 million. Imagine if Jeff Bezos cut his billions to millions. Amazon could probably keep up with that easily. McDonald's could probably easily do 45k a year. Definitely wouldn't work for every business, but there are plenty that could.

Most of Bezos' wealth is on stocks, so its not quite the same.

[Zajras]

You should be paid by your productivity and value

People who take responsibility and have worked hard to get where they are should be paid more than people that take no responsibility and have no skills

[xenogear3]

You have to wait for the whole business cycle to see the effect.

Last year, the government printed lots of money and had huge deficit.
The government contractors are flooded with money.

Trump has a huge "boom and bust" cycle.

[Twix]

Literal retards.

Maybe they had their pay reduced in order to pay other employees 70k/year? Otherwise, sounds pretty dumb to quit a job because you think others don't deserve as much as you lol

[Daedius]

You should be paid by your productivity and value

People who take responsibility and have worked hard to get where they are should be paid more than people that take no responsibility and have no skills

Implying low paid people don't work hard or have no skill... even then, a brain surgeon doesn't even come close to what a CEO earns, and they have the literal responsibility of a person's life in their hands... compared to some pencil pusher that has some charisma for their company.

[Captain N]

Been saying this since the first put forth the $70k starting pay that it wouldn't fail. I've worked for a Company that starts new hires out at $50k-$60k for 10 years and we're still hiring.

Good on Gravity for adding to the evidence that raising employee wages isn't going to tank the Company.

[cityguy193]

Implying low paid people don't work hard or have no skill... even then, a brain surgeon doesn't even come close to what a CEO earns, and they have the literal responsibility of a person's life in their hands... compared to some pencil pusher that has some charisma for their company.

people seem to ignore this point. the idea that the very top are "more skilled" than 98% of their employees, rather than at the top due to circumstance

[Varitok]

Cute story. Too bad this model isn't sustainable in any type of economy that wants to floirish.

Got any proof to back that up?

[TickerDS]

You should be paid by your productivity and value

People who take responsibility and have worked hard to get where they are should be paid more than people that take no responsibility and have no skills

You are right. That does not happen in may places in America though. The above posters comments about firemen, police, military, nurses, ext as examples.

Lots of skilled workers in this country make near or at minimum wage. Without them this nation would not survive, but the rich pay them dirt.

Those who think it is easy to just up and quit a job or leave a field that underpays you for another do not understand how hard and impractical to do that is for many many people. It took me almost 8 years to get out of my underpaying job to find one that paid me properly for my skills and education. Finding the right job is a job within itself sometimes, and if you have a demanding full time job, a family, and any semblance of a life, it is really hard to move up and transition. The economic system in this country as it is today suppresses people to the point where you really get stuck where you are just to survive. It suppresses creativity, flexibility, and moving up the ladder unless you get lucky, know someone, or have money.

It also has to be addressed that there cannot be an unlimited number of small business owners and there are only so many leadership positions in big companies. As the economy is set up now, a lot of people have to be peons. So those peons have to be paid fairly. We exist in a big company world.

I don't think it is all about the CEO or leader of a company cutting their millions or billions to 70k, but balancing it out a LITTLE bit. If those CEOs making those millions and billions even just cut their pay by 30-40% and scaled it down the line at their companies, we would see a huge change in this country.

A huge part of a persons self-worth is tied to their financial stability and income. A huge chunk of our mental and emotional issues we face as a country would be solved by making men, I hate to say it, "feel more like men" again by making a proper wage to support their families.

**and women too, but it is more historically men that have carried the burden to fiscally support a family and that weighs a ton on many, women obviously feel this burden too.

[Linkedblade]

This is an update on the company Gravity Payments a company where every employee makes at least $70k. The company is doing very well. In the first days, a couple key employees quit because they didn't like getting the same pay as noobs.

The company benefited from all the free publicity the move got them, being the first company to pay everyone $70k. That won't happen with the second company that does this.

Seattle being a left wing place, a lot of their new hires and customers want to work with a company that has Gravity Payments values so that helps too.

I think it's mostly a gimmick, it won't work everywhere, just places where there are a lot of left wing people. It's an interesting experiment if anything.

Stop conflating the decision of a CEO to pay his workers better with the government setting minimum wage. The company can do do because it clearly had surplus profit and at the expense of the CEOs seven digit income.

That's not the same as the government setting wages at that level. Not all companies have the profit to support it.

[Pterodactylus]

If min. wage kept up the rate of growth that CEO pay did, $70K/yr ($33/hr) is about what it would be.

[Captain N]

If min. wage kept up the rate of growth that CEO pay did, $70K/yr ($33/hr) is about what it would be.

But obviously those CEOs contribute far more productivity and worth than their employees. Just look at how good Sears, Toys R Us, Lifeway Christian Stores, and Payless Shoesource are doing!

Oh...

[tankbug]

You should be paid by your productivity and value

People who take responsibility and have worked hard to get where they are should be paid more than people that take no responsibility and have no skills

Value doesn't always correlate to hard work and skill, example, "hey, you're that obnoxious reality star, want to do some product placement for us?".

[Themius]

Cute story. Too bad this model isn't sustainable in any type of economy that wants to floirish.

is the only way for a company to flourish to pay the top executives millions?

[Kanegasi]

In the first days, a couple key employees quit because they didn't like getting the same pay as noobs.

This is probably the dumbest thing I have ever heard. This is exactly how some players feel when some rare thing lands into the hands of someone who didn't do the same work as them and then whines and complains about wanting to be a snowflake. It's dumb with pixels and it's dumb with money.

[mojojojo202]

You should be paid by your productivity and value

People who take responsibility and have worked hard to get where they are should be paid more than people that take no responsibility and have no skills

Good way to assess the value of a job on society is to see what happens when someone stops doing it.

Bin men go on strike and in a big city it normally takes a week or 2 for people to start getting really annoyed and not much longer for their to be real consequences.

In Ireland the banking sector went on strike for and it made practically no difference.

Why then should those in the banking sector earn more than bin men?

[Surreality]

Where is all of this money supposed to some from? The only way to get it from the wealthy is to tax it away from them, but we all know that's never going to happen. The government itself can't come up with that kind of income. The only form of fundraising they do is taxation. You can't tax the poor to feed the poor. The only other alternative is to just start printing more money out of thin air, which drives the value down substantially. You can't make something from nothing.

[Khaza-R]

Where is all of this money supposed to some from? The only way to get it from the wealthy is to tax it away from them, but we all know that's never going to happen. The government itself can't come up with that kind of income. The only form of fundraising they do is taxation. You can't tax the poor to feed the poor. The only other alternative is to just start printing more money out of thin air, which drives the value down substantially. You can't make something from nothing.

When someone doesn't read the story at all....